Jeff Fitzgerald announcement tomorrow

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) will be announcing his candidacy for US Senate tomorrow. Will get more details as they become available. Fitzgerald joins former Congressman Mark Neumann in seeking the Republican Party nomination. Former Governor Tommy Thompson is also expected to announce his candidacy, and State Senator Frank Lasee is considering a run.

On the Democratic side, Congressman Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison) is running.

Recently Milwaukee Magazine Editor Bruce Murphy speculated that Fitzgerald floated his name for Senate so he could land a nice job as a lobbyist in the near future. It’s more likely Fitzgerald hopes to repeat Russ Feingold’s performance in 1992 when he snuck by two Democratic heavyweights to win his party’s nomination while they beat each other up. Fitzgerald has conservative credentials and can point to his support of the Walker agenda.

Unfortunately for Fitzgerald, running as assembly speaker for higher office has not been the path to success in recent years. Former Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus ran for governor and got his clock cleaned by Thompson. Supreme Court Justice David Prosser was appointed to the court after losing his run for Congress. John Gard lost his race for Congress – twice.

Could be worse. The last Democratic Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan got caught up in a personal scandal, ticked off his base by supporting legislation also supported by his lobbyist girlfriend, and was discovered to be living outside his district. He lost his re-election bid in 2010.